Company Buys Gordon, Aqualine
March 8, 2002
By Rebecca Robledo
Design/Construction Editor
s of Feb. 11, both Len Gordon deck-side pool and spa controls and Brett Aqualine spa packs have new and different owners.
In February, Ron Clark, former owner and president of Sundance Spas, and Judith Gordon-Zaslowsky, CEO/owner of Len Gordon, joined forces to form Allied Innovations, LLC.
Clark, the primary investor, will serve as the new firm’s CEO, with Gordon-Zaslowsky as president and part-owner. Jeff Cornett, who previously worked with chemical supplier Chem Lab Products, is operations officer.
The new company, based in Las Vegas, purchased the assets of Len Gordon Co./Steamboat International, LLC, which produced the Brett Aqualine and Len Gordon lines, for an undisclosed price.
Allied Innovations will continue to produce the Len Gordon deck-side controls. But to streamline the production, manufacturing and distribution of Brett Aqualine spa packs, operations have shifted to Ontario, Calif.-based Spa Builders Systems Group. Spa Builders, of which Clark is also primary investor and CEO, produces spa packs, too. Allied Innovations will continue to market the Brett Aqualine products.
“That’s an opportunity for Spa Builders to do what they do well and cost-effectively,” Clark said, “where our expertise is really not in manufacturing electronic controls.”
Clark said the company purchased the Len Gordon and Brett Aqualine brands to complement Spa Builders’ existing lines. “If you look at the companies in a combined way, they end up with a more complete offering for their groups of customers. It broadens our distribution channels...and our product offering. So I see the two organizations working closely together, but focused in different niches.”
After the new company settles in, Clark expects it to acquire similar existing technologies down the road. “My intention is to grow the organization through additional acquisitions and mergers if we can find some that are suitable,” he said. “We’ll keep our eyes open for products and/or organizations that we think would be a good fit.”
The firm also owns a plastic-molding company, LGC Plastics, but Clark said it would initially focus on controls and switching technology.
The products will remain available through current distribution outlets.
Gordon-Zaslowsky said the new company would focus on radio frequency controllers, which allow users to control pools and spas from up to 300 feet away. The company wants to gain a position more like the original Len Gordon when it first introduced its air-switch technology, she said.
“At one time Len Gordon Co. was the only controls manufacturer. Then competition started coming in and, because we didn’t step up and go into electronics, we lost a lot of that market share,” she said. “So with the advent of the RF control, we’re hoping to gain back some of that market share.”
Len Gordon started his firm in 1979. The company began producing electronic switches in the early 1990s. Brett Aqualine opened its doors in 1982, producing similar products for portable spas. Gordon passed away four years ago. Gordon-Zaslowsky purchased Brett Aqualine out of bankruptcy in 1998 through her new company, Steamboat International, LLC.
